oa Midrasj in, en, op de bijbel? Kritische kanttekeningen bij het onkritische gebruik van een term

Although the attention paid to rabbinic literature in recent biblical scholarship is laudable, some criticism on the way the term ‘midrash’ is used, is required. It tends to become a fashionable word that has lost all specific meaning. The main reason for this is the scarce experience of biblical scholars with detailed study of rabbinic texts. In this paper, two solutions for this problem are offered. Firstly, exegetes should depart from the factual study of rabbinic midrash, and only on the basis of the characteristics found there, turn to the biblical text; further, they should realize that ‘midrash’ is a very specific form of rabbinic dealing with Scripture, and therefore a 'stretched' use of the term is more often than not inaccurate. To illustrate this subject, some studies in the field of biblical exegesis have been examined.